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Hi Steve, I've had The BB 414, 424x and 1024x. Loved them all. They all sounded great and we're super flexible with the powerful jazz pick up at the bridge. I fell out of love with the look of them and sold them all and moved on to precision basses. I did manage to buy the 414 back as that was my favourite and it's now getting regular gigging time along with the precisions. Not tried the newer 434 but would 100% recommend the 414, 424 range. Just be aware they can occasionally be on the heavy side.

Easiest thing to do is cut some bass and treble. Voila mids.

So it begins! I started last night, back to page 1. I tried to figure out what my roadblocks were with this before and I think it’s my age old bass player problem - I hear just one note at a time and not the complete chord. For example, in the example showing the reharmonisation into 1 or V7 - the 1 chord stays the same so I’m fine, but the 2 chord now being a V7 - I’m not hearing D chord, I’m hearing an A root with C as b3 and F as b7. I think, for me, I need to practice these patterns against a I-V7 loop to hear how it works. And then I had to go pick my eldest up from a gig he was playing. A small start, but a start nonetheless. Thanks for getting this going.

If you have the ability to blend your pickups, rather than just toggle switch, just favour the bridge a bit more, that will get you most of the way there. However, some sort of humped EQ curve from 250-750Hz should get the job done too.

Indeed... And while it's often formulaic in terms of acts and Jools always has to smear his boogie on anything he can, it's a shame that this is the only live (occasionally new) music show regularly on TV (that I know of, at least). This dearth most certainly doesn't help raise interest in any grass-roots live music...

I found the issue - it was the cable from GX-10 to my amp. So no problems with GX-10 reliability. I transport it along with my amp and shoddy cables in a large DJ bag designed for records. They don't make it anymore, but it's this sort of thing: DJ bag. I find it good as a headphone amp (large headphone connector type), but usually use Spark Neo for headphone practice.

Well, considering it once looked like below, I think that price is wild.

Have you been asked for a carnet by customs whilst travelling with your bass, Twigman ? I suppose techically when travelling with your own kit, you should have a CPD but I've never met anyone who uses one...

I couldn't make last night, hope it was as good as last time!

Hagstrom! https://www.hagstromguitars.com/basses/h8-ii/hagstrom-h8-ii-bass

I really like it, there are annoyances though. The DI sounds great, the power amp modelling is excellent and the main reason I’d keep it despite some disappointing omissions. The utilities like the EQ and enhancer are handy in a pinch, the Noise Gate is passable but not gonna beat a dedicated pedal with a loop. That being said I wasn’t impressed be the amp sims, they’re not really my thing. The DynIR cabs that come with it weren’t for me either, I’ve not tried purchasing any so they might be better but out of the Box wasn’t great. The IR loading is excellent, I’ve blended two Science amps IRs and it’s probably the best I’ve heard (for my tastes). I think it’s a real shame that it doesn’t act as an audio interference via usb or support audio streaming over bluetooth like the DG Element though. That was a really handy feature, I’ve got a little BT audio transmitter dongle though which does the job.

Perhaps it’s time to step away from the technical side and concentrate on performance. By this I mean try to stop analysing what you’re doing when playing in your band and feel the groove of the song more and what the other band members are doing. I had an example of this in my own playing, recently. I was playing along to a song I know well with one of my fretless basses and I played it well enough, but it lacked something, I was going through a series of mechanical motions that, whilst they did the job, didn’t seem right. I then played the same song on my EUB. My upright skills, by comparison to my EB skills, are really not great. I don’t have the dexterity or the stamina that I have on EB and have to pare back my performance. Anyway, I played the song the best I could with my upright abilities. What happened was that, although I was delivering a less technical performance, I was really enjoying it, I was actually physically dancing with the EUB and just enjoying the groove. Out of the 2 performances, I know which one I preferred and which one an audience (and band members) would appreciate more.

My suggestion is to take him somewhere where he try as many as possible. In my experience you don’t know what feels and plays ‘right’ until you try it. As a teenager I loved the look of Rickenbackers but when I finally got to try one I didn’t like playing it. A lot of money saved!

SR300 is a very good bass if you're buying new.

Super useful - thanks!!

Also his work with Marvin Gaye on I Want You album is really good.

Good morning. I have a friend who is a guitarist, quite accomplished. He is looking to buy a bass and asked me for advice. He's into metal although can apply himself to many styles. Principally he plays lead. His guitar collection has veered away from fender, he has a PRS, Les Paul and he likes his Ibanez (although he has a Tele with humbuckers - one of them weird ones). I suspect he would like an ibanez but I know little about them. His budget is around £300-£350. Does anyone have any thoughts? I will try to sneak in a Squire CV jazz when we try out. He also mentioned Yamaha. It's just for home recording and playing. Not live - he would be all over the fretboard.

Unless I've missed something, this was a custom order; perhaps the OP wanted it there?

Does 5 minutes of bass playing for you feel like an hour or does an hour feel like 5 minutes? If it's the former you may need to step away for a bit to regroup.

I break my practice sessions into two types. Technical and playing. before I do either I warm up then I start on technical practice. technical practice I limit to 10 minutes. I pick one exercise, put the metronome on and play it. Once I play the exercise perfectly 3 times I increase the metronome tempo. I got it from a janek gwizdala series, and for me it’s so useful to improve my technique. playing practice is exactly as it sounds, playing songs, parts, noodling, jamming but just playing. There’s no time limit on this bit and it’s about fun and playing. this is how i (slowly) get better. jonny

If you have the time during soundcheck, the best way of finding out what works for your particular band, taking account of the sound of the rest of the instruments, is to dial in a moderate mid boost, say 6dB, and sweep it upwards from say, 150Hz all the way to ~1500Hz. You'll hear pretty clearly what works & what doesn't that way.

Funny you should say that, I just did this: The V4 has way more headroom, it’s a lot easier to dial in something more crisp where the V2 is far thicker. I’d say the v4 is more versatile but moth have their own mojo. The Dagger is still my favourite though I think.

Yes, looking to buy 8 string bass (that one with higher octave strings ), anyone anywhere? please let me know up to 800£